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The Dallas Stars overcame a 2-0 deficit to earn a point in a 3-2 shootout loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning at American Airlines Center on Thursday.
It’s the return of the ‘oh, wait, no way, you’re kidding… he didn’t just say what I think he did, did he?’ — Tyler Seguin (sort of)
It’s been a weird day.
When I walked into the optional morning skate today, I did not anticipate seeing No. 91 on the ice for the Stars.
For the first time since his hip surgery in December, Tyler Seguin skated with his team.
Seguin was out there early with Jake Oettinger, remained on the ice for the entire morning skate, and then stayed late with the healthy scratches (Brendan Smith, Evgenii Dadonov) and Oettinger.
Here are a couple of clips of Seguin from morning skate:
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Side note: Oettinger told me this last drill was specifically for him to work on going post to post, especially during power plays and 5-on-3’s. Oettinger said he has not liked how much he’s ended up “swimming” or lost in his net as he tries to get across to stop shots with his skate on the outside of the post. Instead, he wants to go post to post and stay flatter to the goal line to help his efficiency and awareness of where he is in the crease and net.
I know, goalie nerd stuff… but I love it, and I would have gone even deeper into it with Oettinger if not for the dressing room being closed to keep media from trying to talk to 91.
Guess who’s Bäck?
Yup, that was the pun I settled on. I said a few others to Robert Tiffin in the press box, and he did not laugh. He claimed ‘Baby got Bäck’, which is far better. But I am still proud.
Oskar Bäck had an excellent game tonight. The whole fourth line did, really.
Not only did Bäck score his fourth goal of the season on a nice redirect in the second period (which he believed was Sam Steel’s goal), but he was noticeable offensively multiple times, and probably could’ve scored at least twice.
That is not very common.
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What is common is the 25-year-old blocking shots and killing penalties. Don’t worry, he did plenty of that too.
“Those guys gave us some shifts, they gave us some energy,” Stars coach Pete DeBoer said of the fourth line of Bäck, Steel, and Colin Blackwell. “They tried… but that’s a short list of guys on that list.”
What does it say about Bäcks progression that he went from being the final forward to make the team out of camp to staying in the lineup while veterans like Blackwell, Steel, and Dadonov serve as the healthy scratches?
Hmm…
Casey DeSave, DeMan, whatever you want to call him
Casey DeSmith was the best player for Dallas in this game.
It started early…
And it continued late…
DeSmith finished with 36 saves on 38 shots (.947 save percentage).
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“I felt bad that we didn’t give him a better effort,” DeBoer said. “For what he’s done for us this year, he deserved us to give him a better effort than we gave him tonight.”
More on the Stars backup goalie (and the art of the position) tomorrow…
Quotable
Stars coach Pete DeBoer on the effort tonight:
“I mean, there’s no bad points, but I’m really disappointed with our effort, so I don’t have much more to say than that other than Casey DeSmith… I thought they were harder, hungry, and heavier than us, which is inexcusable this time of year… we’ve been leaking a little bit over the last couple weeks and tonight, I think, was probably about as bad as it’s been.”
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